8 Food And Drinks To Avoid If You Have Sensitive Teeth

Nobody enjoys having sensitive teeth. It prevents you from enjoying certain food and drinks. And don’t get us started with the sharp pain that follows. Receding gums, fractured or cracked teeth, excessive plaque, and tooth decay are just some of the reasons that cause sensitive teeth. If you have sensitive teeth, it’s always best to visit your dentist to rectify the problem. You also need to limit or avoid certain food and drinks completely that are prone to tooth sensitivity. Here are the 8 foods and drinks below.

1) Soft Drinks

Drinking soda is definitely a no-no if you have sensitive teeth. Besides, it contains two main ingredients that aren’t particularly tooth-friendly: sugar and acid. Both of these ingredients interact against each other and erodes your sensitive teeth further, causing annoyingly sharp pain at the same time. It doesn’t even matter if you drink a “sugar-free” soda since it still contains artificial sweeteners that promote tooth decay.

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2) Alcoholic Beverages

Beer, liquor and wine are acidic — one of the main causes that increase tooth sensitivity. It gets worse if you add citrus like lemon or a lime wedge to your alcoholic beverage. Citrus is naturally acidic and you can imagine what would happen to your sensitive teeth when you mix them with the already-acidic alcoholic beverage.

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3) Fruit Juices

Some of you might be wondering: Aren’t fruit juices supposed to provide health benefits even if they are freshly squeezed? You see, fruit juices, regardless of freshly squeezed or packaged contain high amounts of sugar known as fructose. The reason? Making a cup of fruit juice usually requires more than one fruit to fill it up.

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4) Citrus Fruits

We already mentioned that citrus is naturally acidic in #2. Besides the usual lemon and lime, other citrus fruits best to avoid are grapefruit, orange and tangerine. All of these are prone to triggering tooth sensitivity.

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5) Ice Cream

Kids and adults love them. They are comforting, creamy and delicious. But if you have sensitive teeth, you might want to think twice before licking that vanilla-flavoured ice cream cone. This is because ice cream contains high amounts of sugar, while its cold temperature triggers your tooth sensitivity and pain further.

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6) Candies

Hard, sticky, soft, gummies… it doesn’t matter what type of candy you end up putting inside your mouth since they contain lots of sugar. Some candies tend to get stuck on your teeth, making the pain even worse.

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7) Tomatoes

These red rounded fruits are packed with antioxidants, vitamin C and potassium. They promote heart health and may even prevent cancer diseases associated with prostate, breast and stomach. But why do they remain a bad idea for sensitive-teeth sufferers? Here’s the thing: they are highly acidic. Keep in mind that tomato sauce and tomato juice can also cause tooth sensitivity.

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8) Hot Food

Hot food, particularly the one that comes in extreme temperatures like piping-hot Chinese cuisine, soup, coffee and tea can cause pain and sensitivity to your teeth. Even if you insist on eating or drinking these hot food or drinks, at least wait until they cool down a little.

Casey is a freelance writer and a movie enthusiast, where some of his close friends dubbed him as "walking encyclopedia of movies". He also frequently blog movie reviews under "Casey's Movie Mania" (www.caseymoviemania.com)